at cross purposes

Also found in: Legal.

at cross purposes

In conflict with or in opposition to. You will never find success if you continue to work at cross purposes with your teammates.

See also: cross, purpose

at cross-purposes

with opposing viewpoints; with goals that interfere with each other. We are arguing at cross-purposes. We aren't even discussing the same thing. Bill and Tom are working at cross-purposes. They'll never get the job done right.

at cross purposes

With aims or goals that conflict or interfere with one another, as in I'm afraid the two departments are working at cross purposes. This idiom, first recorded in 1688, may have begun as a 17th-century parlor game called "cross-purposes," in which a series of subjects (or questions) were divided from their explanations (or answers) and distributed around the room. Players then created absurdities by combining a subject taken from one person with an explanation taken from another.

See also: cross, purpose

at cross purposes

If two people are at cross purposes, they think they are talking about or trying to do the same thing as each other, but they are actually talking about or trying to do different things. They had been talking at cross purposes earlier, he realized. The Hungarian hadn't been offering him a share of the deal at all. Now that Council members are working together instead of at cross purposes, the chances of success look considerably brighter.

See also: cross, purpose

at cross purposes

misunderstanding or having different aims from one another.

See also: cross, purpose

at cross-purposes

Pursuing conflicting or contrary goals, usually unintentionally: We're working at cross-purposes.

References in periodicals archive ?

But I found that the hares were working at cross purposes to my forestry plan.

What's bothering your woodlot?

The Fed and Congress working at cross purposes is particularly problematic when short-term interest rates are pinned near zero, as they have been since late 2008.

US economy needs more stimulus: Bernanke

We hope that the MNLF and the MILF's commitment, both representing the Bangsamoro peoples, should not be at cross purposes with each other," added Leonen.

Questions raised over peace talks

They offer a variety of tools, exercises, and examples from several industries such as Walmart, Pfizer, and Amazon to help companies learn how to create a strategically coherent company in which key elements reinforce each other rather than work at cross purposes.

The essential advantage; how to win with a capabilities-driven strategy

The new Coalition may appear to be at cross purposes in some respects but make no mistake, both parties are determined to rescue the country from the calamitous black hole left by the

VENT YOUR SPLEEN

And to the extent that doctors are justifiably fearful, to the extent that the law actually does work at cross purposes with ethics and medicine, what can we recommend to policymakers to change the law?

FSU center brings future doctors and attorneys together

Mr de Baca said another issue was that several government agencies seemed to be working at cross purposes, including in Bahrain.

Human trafficking 'escalating in GCC'

We have an effective partnership with Pakistan that is working to achieve our goals in the entire region and that we're not working at cross purposes, that issues of corruption are dealt with, that we are identifying not just a national government in Kabul, but provincial government actors that have legitimacy .

US, Pak not working at cross-purposes: Obama

We may have been speaking at cross purposes," she apologised.

Stuck up a tree with a kitten

Our clerk of the course Katherine Self had phoned the BHA but it appears that we were at cross purposes.

Ayr ready to take rap if breaching gallop rule

It also would be possible to better coordinate the efforts of educational agencies and institutions that might otherwise work at cross purposes and to reduce needless duplication of effort.

A seamless system; Secretariat would coordinate many arms of education

Their efforts to keep young "Grifonino" safe, find out where he came from, and return him safely take them on a whirlwind of adventure and even danger, as they are at cross purposes with greedy paparazzi, eager scientists, and the lurking menace of Prince Eduardo.

Saving the Griffin

Their actions are at cross purposes to their stated policy".

The Challenges Of Terrorism - Part 22 - Iraq & US-Iran Talks

At Gettysburg, Lee seemed at cross purposes with his subordinates.

Learning program management on the battlefield at Gettysburg

Mr Johnson said Hunter told police she had been at cross purposes with Lee in their conversations and that the "worst she wanted was Colin Love and Judith Love frightened.